Welcome to the web site
of the Berger-Marks Foundation!
If
you want to help workers -- and especially women workers -- join labor
unions, you've come to the right place.
The Berger-Marks Foundation, whose mission is to help organize women
into unions, provides both financial support and camaraderie to people
and organizations doing that work. Through this site you can now
apply online for grants, and learn about people who have received
grants. The site also features useful resources for women organizers.
Address: 501 Third Street NW,
6th floor
Washington, DC 20001
Where we came from
The Foundation is inspired by Edna Berger -- a pioneer for women's rights and the first woman lead organizer
for The Newspaper Guild-CWA. It is named after her and her husband, the legendary Tin
Pan Alley song-writer Gerald Marks who bequested his fortune to set up the Foundation.
Berger was a feisty, remarkable woman and first-rate organizer of newspaper unions who paved the way for other women, including members of our Foundation board. Find out more about Berger.
When Berger died in 1996, Louise Walsh, a reporter who had evolved into a union activist and educator herself, set up a scholarship fund in Berger's name, aiming to honor this "decades-long mentor." Walsh invited other pioneering women unionists to serve on the board, and they launched the fund by kicking in $2,000, plus small donations from a few Newspaper Guild activists.
Berger's widower Gerald Marks was impressed and invited Board member Linda
Foley, then president of The Newspaper Guild, to visit him in NYC. Meeting
her impressed him even more; when he died shortly thereafter, he left
three-quarters of his estate to the group, and the Berger-Marks Foundation
was born. It was funded by royalties from Marks' prolific Tin Pan Alley
catalogue, including his most famous song, "All of Me." Hence, the musical
note in our logo. Most of the catalogue was recently sold to Sony; and the
proceeds will enable the foundation to support more organizing and research.
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